Chapter 1 Remake

I know what you're thinking. "Why is she redoing this story, it was fantastic?" Well, the truth is, I just want to improve it. If you already read it, you don't have to read it again. (But if you want to read it again, please do! I changed a lot! And at the end tell me what you thought of the changes.) if this is your first time reading the story, then you are in for a real treat. All the chapters have already been updated, so you don't have to worry about waiting for an update! Just read to your hearts content. :)

The first several chapters with be basically the same, but then it will begin to change later on. So, without further ado, here is

Chapter 1.

Enjoy!

It was a sunny day, and little Jason Bills was thoroughly enjoying his field trip. Mrs. McGillicuddy had been teaching his class about different animals for weeks now, and he was excited to finally see some in person, here at the Central Park Zoo. He really liked the monkeys, because they made him laugh. "No," he thought, "they don't have tails, they must be chimps" So, he laughed at the chimps, especially when they flung poo at the class bully, mean old Mason Tornes.

He also enjoyed watching the baboons dance, and the sleeping koala looked so cute. He listened to the zookeeper's monotonous speech about the elephant and the rhino, and he clapped for the otter when it slid down its slide on its belly and flipped into the air. After the teacher and zookeeper looked away, he secretly gave it some of his popcorn.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, loud music started playing, and Jason joined the quickly growing crowd around the lemur habitat. He squeezed his way to the front and stared, amazed, as the ring-tailed lemur jumped around and danced. He was a much better dancer than those old baboons. Caught up in the excitement, Jason almost didn't notice when his class left to visit the last habitat. When he realized that he was alone he quickly looked around and ran to catch up with his classmates.

Once he arrived at the habitat, he eagerly looked inside, searching for something else exciting. He was immediately disappointed when he saw the four small penguins. They were smiling and waving, waving and smiling, but it wasn't enough to impress anyone. The other children began to grow restless, and Jason disappointedly stared down at the blue water. Just as they were about to give up, the penguins burst into action. They summersaulted, flipped, jumped, swam... They were overwhelmingly adorable. Then, as if it were a coordinated finale, they all hopped up on their concrete ice floe and proceeded to waggle their tails at the students. With this, the entire class burst into applause, and the zookeeper gave them some fish to throw into the habitat as reward. After the penguins had eaten the fish, Jason and the rest of his class returned to their bus to go back to school. As he walked out the zoo gates, Jason turned around to get one last look at the penguins, but they were gone.

As the school group walked away, the four penguins immediately cut their cute and cuddly act. The short, flat headed penguin said to his comrades, "Last group of the day, men. Let's get some training in before some emergency comes up."

"Aye Skipper" said the tallest penguin, addressing his leader. "But surely you aren't still talking about my Monitoratron 8000. We had this discussion yesterday, it's not going to blow up, and it's not going to backfire. I've done some work with Barium hydroxide to avert the kinetic energy..."

Skipper interrupted him, saying, "Awe, save it Kowalski! I'll never trust any of your machines. Surely you haven't forgotten what happened to Manfredy and Johnson?"

"Aren't you being a bit paranoid, Skippah?" Said the shortest, and roundest penguin. "Aftah all, we're still alive, even aftah all of Kowalski's othah failed experiments." This comment earned him an annoyed glare from Kowalski.

"Private, your ignorance has no boundaries. But, I'm looking forward to a huge I Told You So after this is all said and done, so we may as well go ahead and test this invention. There's nothing happening out here anyway."

The penguins waddled across the concrete ice flow, over to their bowl. Skipper lifted it up to reveal the entrance to their home. Skipper, Kowalski, and Private all jumped inside. The forth penguin had not yet said a word. They called him Rico, a name that he had always been happy with. Not his real name, of course. He couldn't pronounce his real name. Then again, there wasn't much that he Could pronounce, but he had never been much of a talker anyway, so it wasn't a problem. He was thinking of this as he followed the others inside, probably just to make the narrators job easier.

Once he got inside, Rico noticed that Kowalski and Private were in the middle of a heated argument. "How strange." He thought. "Private is normally so calm..." Moments later the cause of their argument was revealed. Once he heard the word Doris, Rico stopped listening, returning to his thoughts of fish, explosives, and wild car chases. Although he had his moments of sanity, Rico spent most of his time in a state somewhere between "insane" and "should be institutionalized"

Meanwhile, Skipper was also ignoring the argument. "Kowalski's love life is pathetic, why argue?" He thought. Skipper loved violence and confrontation, but the excess noise was giving him a headache. As the leader of the group, he could have shut them up, but he wasn't exactly eager to test this invention, so he let it go. Instead, he discretely waddled away, heading for the coffee maker. "Everything is more bearable with coffee" he thought.

As Skipper poured his coffee, the argument suddenly ended, and the sudden silence was shocking. So shocking that Skipper spilled coffee all over the table. He growled in frustration, and called on Private to clean the mess.

Private eagerly took up the job. He was always assigned to the chores, and he never complained. He just listened to the words of Princess Self-Respectra, and did every task with joy in his heart and a smile on his face. The other penguins were a little suspicious of his constant good attitude, but this never phased him. Maybe he was more resilient (which is highly unlikely, Private had always been the most sensitive of the group) or maybe he was just too naive, but no matter what it was, his positive attitude was never diminished.

As Private cleaned the spilled coffee, Skipper waddled over to Kowalski. He had won his argument, but he was still upset. Of course, it hadn't been much of an argument. Private had merely repeated some of the Lunacorns policies on love and honesty. But all the same, he had mentioned Doris. And this was enough to upset Kowalski.

While he waited to test his invention, Kowalski's brain filled with remembrances of Doris. The brief time they spent together... The sudden departure... It all happened so fast. Over the years, Kowalski had seen Doris many times, and every time had been the same. He would finally be over her, but then she would come back, and he would be head over heels once again. Ever since their last meeting, however, when they had finally kissed, Kowalski's feelings for her had diminished, and he knew that he was finally over her. But still, hearing her name upset him. It reminded him of how he had fallen for a women so helplessly. It was pathetic and unprofessional. His line of work as the options guy didn't require emotion, so he had locked up his feelings a long time ago. The key was hidden somewhere at the bottom of Rico's stomach.

"Ahem! Kowalski, we're waiting. You know lolly gagging around is not on the schedule." Said Skipper. Kowalski quickly jumped up and waddled over to his invention, mentally preparing his speech. This invention looked like a large black box. The front was lined with screens, along with a few keyboards.

"Penguins and Rico, I would like to present... The Monitoratron 8000!" With a flourish, he flipped the switch, and waited of the amazement of his peers. When he heard nothing but silence, he turned around and realized that he had not plugged it into the electric outlet. Embarrassed, he hurried to plug it in. After he had done so, the machine whirred to life, and several screens on the front lit up. After a moment or two of black static, they began to show images of various places throughout the zoo.

"I have installed cameras in every habitat, as well as in Alice's office. We should be able to monitor all the happenings in the zoo from here." After observing the blank looks the others were giving him, he added, "Like a security system."

"Or a spying machine!" Interjected Private. "We can't spy on our friends and neighbahs!"

"Wrong! We can and we will!" Said Skipper. "I think I'm going to like this invention... But what's the downside? When does it blow up?"

"Like I said before, it won't blow up. I'm 97.6% positive." Answered Kowalski.

"Well... If you're sure..." Skipper was only procrastinating, this invention seemed too good to be true. He thought for a moment, and made his decision. "Alright boys, I give this invention the all-clear. Rico, a chair." Rico quickly hacked up a chair, and Skipper pointed to it, saying, "I want someone on watch duty 24/7. We'll set up shifts."

Suddenly, a voice from behind them said, "What is that? Are you spies?"

This mere sentence shocked them all to silence; not because of the words said, but because of the voice saying them: they didn't recognize it. The voice of Marlene or Julien (or any other neighbor) would have annoyed them, but the men were used to those interruptions. But this was different. A stranger had entered their lair. Skipper muttered softly, "On my mark." Kowalski and Rico prepared to attack, but Private became lost in thought, wondering if it was a good idea to attack a potential friend. In his distraction, he failed to hear skipper's "Now!" and so he didn't turn to attack with the others.

What finally brought him back to reality was NOT a triumphant shout from skipper, as the men successfully tackled the newcomer. It was NOT a careful interrogation, led by Kowalski, in search of this animals motives and inner secrets. No, what finally brought private back to reality was the dull 'thud' of Rico falling to the ground, utterly paralyzed. Private turned in shock to the others. Skipper was in a similar state, only upright. Kowalski was not paralyzed, but he wore an expression of extreme confusion, not often seen on the face of a genius.

Somehow, Private found the courage to turn and face the newcomer, who had so utterly overcome his companions. And he was shocked at what he saw.

So, what do you think? I hope you like my story so far, and please read on! If this is your first time with this story, shoot me a review! :)